SEBASTIAN BACH: 'I Never Understood The Depressing Side Of Rock'

In a new interview with Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station, Sebastian Bach was asked if he knew that SOUNDGARDEN was "going to blow up" when the Chris Cornell-fronted outfit opened for SKID ROW on the "Slave To The Grind" tour in 1991. The former SKID ROW singer responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "No, I didn't, because… I come from a time where rock and roll was nothing but fun — having fun, having a good time, having a great time, with a smile on your face and your fist pumping in the air, getting into the fun of rock, smiling, laughing, having fun. And I never understood the depressing side of rock. I didn't get into rock and roll to be depressed. I got into rock and roll to escape depression. If I feel in a rotten mood, the first thing I do is I go to a record store. There's a bunch of record stores here in [my hometown of Las] Vegas. People are, like, 'You remember record stores?' I go, 'What do you mean, do you remember?' There's tons of record stores. When I'm on the road and I've got a day off, me and my guitar player, Brent Woods, the first thing we do is we go on Yelp and we put in 'vinyl records' and we go to the mom-and-pop record store and hunt down vinyl and stuff like that. And rock and roll always makes me feel like in a great mood. So when I think of Chris Cornell opening for SKID ROW at the Fox Theater [in Detroit] on 'Slave To The Grind' tour, I remember those days, and I remember Chris, after the show, having a beer, and I would go have a beer with them and we would talk and stuff like that. And, and it was a fun time back in '91. I don't know what happens between '91 and whenever things go wrong for him, but it's so sad to me that I remembered the fun times of Detroit, the Fox Theater."

Sebastian went on to say that his "goal" with his upcoming solo album "is to bring fun back to rock. That's what I'm trying to do. And I really feel like that first video and first song, we knocked it out of the park on the fun," he said. "And that's what I wanna do. I want people to have fun listening to my music. That's what it's all about to me."

Back in 2016, Bach talked about how the rise of grunge in the early 1990s contributed to the decline of glam metal and party rock and roll. Asked during an appearance on the Fox Business program "Kennedy" when he realized that there was a "shift" taking place and how he felt about it, Bach said: "I think I realized it when I saw the video for [NIRVANA's] 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'. And there was never any video or song like that before; it was a new sound, and people were responding to it. But what goes around comes around. I mean, now the biggest tour in town is GUNS N' ROSES or AC/DC, who have the same singer," he said, referencing the fact that Axl Rose was the guest vocalist for AC/DC's 2016 tour. "So, you know, music is cyclical, and people will always love rock and roll, 'cause it gets passed down through the generations. IRON MAIDEN has never been bigger than right now. It's kind of crazy."

This past November, Bach released a new single, "What Do I Got To Lose?" The song's official music video was directed by Jim Louvau and Tony Aguilera. For the clip, Sebastian is joined by his former SKID ROW bandmate, drummer Rob Affuso.

"What Do I Got To Lose?" was co-written by Sebastian, Myles Kennedy and producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette at Elvis's studio, Studio Barbarosa in Gotha, Florida.

Among the other musicians who have assisted Bach during the writing and recording process for his new music are Orianthi (ALICE COOPER, Michael Jackson),John 5 (ROB ZOMBIE, MARILYN MANSON),Steve Stevens (Billy Idol),Brent Woods, Eli Santana and Jeremy Colson.

Bach hasn't released a full-length disc since "Give 'Em Hell", which came out in March 2014. Like its predecessor, 2011's "Kicking & Screaming", the disc was released through Frontiers Music Srl, the Italian label which specializes in what's commonly called AOR, a term that once signified a popular radio format ("album-oriented rock") but nowadays applies to acts whose airplay is marginal.